Research Methods 101

Photo by Jo Szczepanska on Unsplash

Research methods are tools and techniques for carrying out research while research in layman terms, is a process used to uncover new facts.

Research helps us to: Categorise information; describe situations to establish what is the norm; explain complex issues to make sense of elements involved in facts collected; evaluate things by making judgements about the quality of an object or event; compare two or more contrasting cases; correlate relationships between two phenomena and how they influence each other; predict possible future behaviour or events; and control an event or situation.

Some of the types of research methods used include:

· Experiments

· Surveys

· Questionnaires

· Interviews

· Case Studies

· Participant/Non-Participant observations

· Trials, etc.

Doing research consists of identifying a subject to study, finding and collecting information, analysing it, and coming up with a range of practical problems that need to be solved. An important aspect to note is that different research designs are appropriate for different types of research projects. The choice of which to use is mostly dependent on the nature of the problems to be solved.

To properly research a concept or material, you need to know:

· What it means (Definition)

· Its influencers (Factors that affect it), and

· How it will be measured

Another important fact is how trustworthy your research will be. The number of people involved in your study, who they are, and how you carried out the research are essential information that will help you and others trust your result. In statistical terms, they are:

·Population

· Sample

· Research Methodology

Constructs

Constructs come into play when we decide what is to be measured. Listed below are points needed to understand what constructs are

· They are ideas or concepts

· They have different meanings to different people, so their nature is subjective.

·And because of this, they help us understand human relationships better, also

· There isn’t just one way to define and measure them

Operational Definitions

Operational Definitions are descriptions we settle on to measure a construct. It is important to note that a concept changes from a construct to an operational definition the moment we include how it is to be measured.

For example:

Construct — Employee Satisfaction

Operational Definition — Rating of job satisfaction from 1 (not satisfied) to 5 (very satisfied)

Hence, operational definitions help us to have a precise idea of what a construct means to a person (researcher).